Edinburgh Monarchs go down fighting as Pirates take victory

The hosts were rocked earlier this week when Australian duo Justin Sedgmen and Kye Thomson were ruled out for the rest of the season through injury.

Josh Pickering leads Tom Brennan at Armadale. Picture: Jack Cupido.

Drew Kemp and Troy Batchelor deputised for the Capital side and despite a valiant effort from all seven in Blue and Gold, the Pirates are a tough nut to crack and underlined their title credentials by securing their 13th victory of the Championship campaign.

The visitors have cemented their position at the top of British speedway's second tier and will now choose their semi-final play-off opponents within the next week or so.

Monarchs, meanwhile, have one league fixture still to contest, next Friday's final Scottish derby of the season when the Glasgow Tigers provide the opposition in West Lothian. The hosts must take the bragging rights if they are to jump above Berwick and avoid finishing bottom of the table for what has largely been a disappointing campaign.

Monarchs actually trailed the Pirates by 10 at the midway point with only Josh Pickering seeing the chequered flag from the opening seven heats.

However, slowly but surely the home side began to reel their opponents in and a brilliant sprint to the line saw Lasse Fredriksen pass Tobias Thomsen to join Pickering for a big 5-1 that saw the Pirates lead reduced to two 37-35 with just three heats remaining.

But Tom Brennan and Richard Lawson returned the favour in the very next race to edge the Dorset men closer to victory. A 3-3 in heat 14 saw the Pirates over the line, although Pickering got the better of Brennan in an enthralling heat 15 battle to give the Monarchs supporters something to cheer about.